Several individual states have recently begun to develop requirements for annual area-wide hospital capital expenditure ceilings for approval of certificates of need. In addition, Title II of the Administration's hospital cost-containment bill calls for similar annual capital expenditure ceilings. Implementation of such measures will require health planning agencies to change their current decision-making procedures to take account of the expenditure constraint. This study would identify the choices open to agencies in selecting resource allocation procedures and evaluate the evidence on the likely effects of alternative agency procedures. The project will involve an analysis of state and federal laws and regulations pertaining to agency resource allocation procedures (including plan development and project review) and establish agency procedural guidelines to identify procedures that will be open to change. A search and evaluation of the literature on social resource allocation decision-making in the public sector will also be conducted with the purpose of determining the internal and external validity of findings on the outcomes of alternative decision-making procedures and techniques for the health planning environment.